It is the Mission of the Nebraska Family Forum (NFF) to promote education policies in our state that preserve and protect parental authority and the integrity of the family. In so doing, we will preserve the cooperative and respectful relationship between school authorities and parents, preserve a family-centered community, and provide a well-rounded education for our kids.

Pages

Search This Blog

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Someone Else Will Do It

Someone Else Will Do
It:When Fear Stops You

by Gina Miller

When I received the first letter stating that my child had
missed a certain number of days of school, and my school district was required
by law to inform me that if she missed any more school they would be referring
her to the County Attorney, my sense of injustice went right through the
roof.I immediately started working to
find out who I could partner with to figure out how something so sacred as the
relationship between myself and my child’s school could be turned into threats
and intimidation, into bullying of my child by school personnel, with innuendo
and public conversations about her attendance in front of her friends.

I have been in this fight for three years.I have worked with amazing, passionate people
who have put their lives on hold to fight for my child and all of yours.I have had the opportunity to meet with
principals, superintendents, school boards, legislators, county boards, county
attorneys, and pretty much anyone else who would listen.

I feel that I have been pretty effective getting our message
out and connecting with decision and policy makers.Through all of my efforts it was not until
just recently that I disclosed that I had a child that was affected by the law.Most of my friends thought this was just one
of my “causes” that I was working on.

Why did I not disclose that my child was targeted, that I
feel that my family has been injured and harassed?

I have struggled with this question for quite some
time.Even after I told people that my
daughter was in jeopardy of being referred to law enforcement, when I was asked
to say something publically about it, I became paralyzed!What was that?I have fought to change this law for three
years.I knew that the one thing policy
makers were impacted by were family stories!I have privately told people my personal story, so what was stopping me
from going public with our story?

THE DOUBTS, THE FEAR, THE INTIMIDATION….yep, that was
it.What would other people say?WHAT IF “they” were right and my child
really wasn’t sick and just “wanted to stay home.”WHAT IF my child received further harassment
from the school because of me going public with our story?WHAT IF, since we were into year three of
this harassment, they decided to use the clause in the law that said you can
refer at any time if the child has previously gone over 20 days?What if, what if, what if…….

I knew we had “other family stories” and that they had been
effective.What I didn’t know is that once
the policy makers hear a story, they are done with it.They don’t want to hear about it again.They assume these are “one off” situations,
that there is a simple explanation for that one case and they move on.Once we started getting families who would
agree to tell their story publically and we were able to piece together a
“quilt” of stories across districts, across counties, across the state, THEN
PEOPLE STARTED LISTENING.

This is what we need:We need PEOPLE, we need FAMILIES who can personally recount their
experiences with this law.We need them
to stand up, to be heard, to engage, to let policy makers hear their
story.It doesn’t have to be pretty, it
doesn’t have to be perfect, and it doesn’t have to be detailed.Just SHOW up.Just start.Just come together
with other families who are experiencing the same thing.You ARE NOT ALONE!There IS POWER in numbers!

What I discovered once I received a “little push” to go
public is that I WAS FREE!I was free
to tell my story! I received support,
not judgment! I was free to go past the typical chain of command to get to the decision
makers to CHANGE my situation! I was
free to GET THINGS DONE! That is all I
have wanted for three years!For three
years I have felt like I have been screaming in the dark, fighting an
unwinnable battle.But since there were
brave families willing to go public I can now say that we are within inches of
getting this law repealed.

We CAN NOT STOP right before the finish line!We NEED NEW STORIES, WE NEED MORE FAMILIES, and
WE NEED YOU!!!!

2 comments:

You could certainly see your enthusiasm withnin the article you write. The world hopes for even more passionate writers such as you who are not afraid to say how they believe.Always go after your heart.

Follow by Email

The Personal Impact of Nebraska's School Attendance Law

We began collecting stories in April of 2011 and will continue to collect them as long as the law is abused. The stories we have collected demonstrate how our community has been impacted by Nebraska's school attendance law that counts all absences rather than "unexcused" absences for purposed of "truancy".

It may seem by the district by district breakdown that the law has impacted Millard Public Schools the most, but it is important to note that the Nebraska Family Forum grew out of the Millard Parent Society and therefore the awareness within Millard Public Schools is longstanding.

Out of the 3000+ cases referred to the Douglas County Attorney last year only 400 came from MPS. For every story collected here it is reasonable to assume that they represent dozens more who are affected who have not written their thoughts in a public way.

The Facebook Effect

Nebraska Family Forum: What we Stand For

Mission:

It is the Mission of the Nebraska Family Forum (NFF) to promote education policies in our state that preserve and protect parental authority and the integrity of the family. In so doing, we will preserve the cooperative and respectful relationship between school authorities and parents, preserve a family-centered community, and provide a well-rounded education for our kids.

NFF Guiding Principles:

Family is Key: We believe the family is the single most important element to a child’s ability to learn and be successful in school and life, and parents are the foundation upon which family success rests. For this reason, it’s imperative that the state honor the authority of parents as they exercise their natural rights, obligations, and responsibilities to raise, manage, direct, and educate their children.

Freedom in Education is essential: We believe that flexibility in education, school choice, stimulating curriculum, quality teachers, and innovative education reforms are essential to a family centered education. We support policies that will lead to greater parental influence in education innovation, curriculum, and choice.

Family struggles are a healthy part of life: We believe that the fundamental right of a parent does not cease to exist simply because a parent may fail to be a model parent. Parents often struggle to meet the needs of their children, but this is not in itself sufficient cause for unwanted and unwarranted government intrusion into family life. We join with Father Steven Boes of Boys Town in "proclaiming that not only are there no bad boys, as Father Flanagan taught, but there are no bad families.” There is always at least one person in a family that wants what is best for their children and is willing to ask for and receive the help they need.

Government Intrusion can be Harmful: We believe that the right of parents to raise their children without undue government interference is a fundamental liberty that has long been protected by the Constitution of the United States and is not void upon the enrollment of ones child in a public school. We warn that governments who seek to micro-manage the everyday choices of parents in pursuit prescribed outcomes, will do great harm to the integrity of the family and by extension, the well-being of children and society as a whole.

Mother… I think of all the lessons she has modeled for me throughout my life in topics from boys to academia to love in and of family to the meaning of true success… now I heed her lessons in balancing my life, work and passions. All the while, she is my teacher, one with the honored and sacred name of Mother.

Who ran to help me when I fell, And would some pretty story tell, Or kiss the place to make it well? My mother.

The Simple Truths

Children have to be educated, but they have also to be left to educate themselves. ~ Ernest Dimnet

Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught. ~ Oscar Wilde

Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire. ~ William Butler Yeats

Education is simply the soul of a society as it passes from one generation to another. ~ Gilbert K. Chesterton

Education is what survives when what has been learned has been forgotten. ~ B. F. Skinner

Education... has produced a vast population able to read but unable to distinguish what is worth reading. ~ G. M. Trevelyan

Every educated person is a future enemy. ~ Martin Bormann

I prefer the company of peasants because they have not been educated sufficiently to reason incorrectly. ~ Michel de Montaigne

In the first place, God made idiots. That was for practice. Then he made school boards. ~ Mark Twain

It is a thousand times better to have common sense without education than to have education without common sense. ~ Robert Green Ingersoll

Much education today is monumentally ineffective. All too often we are giving young people cut flowers when we should be teaching them to grow their own plants. ~ John W. Gardner

No man who worships education has got the best out of education... Without a gentle contempt for education no man's education is complete. ~ Gilbert K. Chesterton

Real education must ultimately be limited to men who insist on knowing, the rest is mere sheep-herding. ~ Ezra Pound

The object of education is to prepare the young to educate themselves throughout their lives. ~ Robert M. Hutchins

The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education. ~ Albert Einstein

To the uneducated, an A is just three sticks. ~ A. A. Milne

Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school. ~ Albert Einstein

The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next. ~ Abraham Lincoln

My mother said I must always be intolerant of ignorance but understanding of illiteracy. That some people, unable to go to school, were more educated and more intelligent than college professors. ~aya Angelou

Dad kept us out of school, but school comes and goes. Family is forever.

I hated school. Even to this day, when I see a school bus it's just depressing to me. The poor little kids. ~ Dolly Parton

True terror is to wake up one morning and discover that your high school class is running the country. ~ Kurt Vonnegut

One good mother is worth a hundred schoolmasters. ~George Herbert

Dad kept us out of school, but school comes and goes. Family is forever.

"The amount of freedom to which a person is entitled is strictly measured by the amount of freedom he is willing to allow his fellow man." ~ Verlan Andersen

"You complain of bad city government. It is ultimately the fault of the people themselves if it is bad... In no way can you bring about decency in your Government so quickly as by backing up the men (and women) who represent your interests, rewarding those who are faithful and punishing those who fail in their duty." ~ Theodore Roosevelt